John Chinn is led from a Denver Courtroom in 1991.Denver Post photo by Jerry Cleveland

Chinn, a 9th grade dropout with a soft voice, quickly came to the attention of Lakewood police because he had been charged with sexual assault on a child. Just five days earlier a judge had released Chinn on a $5,000 bond.

Chinn was described by one reporter as an androgynous-looking young man. Chinn’s father, Hiram “Dig” Chinn, a librarian, told a KCNC-Channel 4 reporter that his son’s interest in boys is “pure love.” In another TV interview he said his son would not have killed anyone, although he had personal problems that caused him to contemplate suicide. A friend of Chinn’s, Catherine White, told reporters at the time that Chinn was a “puppy dog,” too gentle to hurt anyone. She added that he was part of a group of “death rockers.” He was like a mother hen to many of the youths who hung out in downtown Denver.

“Everybody on Colfax knew who he was. He’s not a sociopath. I’ve seen him mad, but I’ve never seen him destroy anything,” White told a Denver Post reporter.

Chinn’s mother, Sharon, was also a librarian. Chinn was an only child. He was born in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. In junior high school, the formerly introverted boy started dressing like the androgynous Boy George, a neighbor said.

He and his friends “listened to violent, thrashing rock ‘n’ roll, laced with themes of sex and death,” a neighbor told the reporter. He later got a GED at Emily Griffith Opportunity School. In 1989, Chinn was convicted of selling LSD in a drug sting. Chinn was enrolled in a program in the Arapahoe County mental health center. He left in March 1991, when his therapist left the program.

In May 1991, Denver police arrested Chinn for investigation of molesting a 9-year-old boy. Chinn allegedly fondled the boy three times between August 1990 and February 1991. Chinn was an acquaintance of the boy’s older sister and the child’s mother left her son alone with the child.

He had been released on bond on July 16, 1991 on the condition that he enroll in a treatment center aimed at “redirecting sexual aggression.”

In a three-hour interview with police on Wednesday, July 23, 1991 at Lakewood police headquarters, Chinn admitted to detectives that he had spent about 45 minutes with Josh and Jakeob while they swam that afternoon. Chinn appeared eager to cooperate. He let police take pictures of his “naked torso, limbs, hands and feet for evidence of cuts, bruises or other possible evidence. He provided samples of his blood, hair, fingerprints and saliva.

Chinn admitted he was fascinated by McKnight’s eyes, telling police they were the bluest eyes he had ever seen. He told them he felt “compelled” to tell Jakeob how he felt about the young boy’s eyes and arranged to meet McKnight at the greenbelt “tree house” the following Tuesday so he could take pictures of Jakeob.

But Chinn insisted he had nothing to do with Jakeob’s murder. He denied being with Jakeob at the 7-Eleven that evening around 9:30 p.m. In a three-hour interview, Chinn swore he left the park with friends at 4:30 p.m. and didn’t return that night.

Police arrested him two days later on July 25 for violations of his release terms while awaiting trial in the alleged molestation of a 9-year-old boy. Besides admitting he had contact with a child he had also violated bond conditions by moving out of his parent’s Littleton home and he had failed to contact probation officers as required in March and April. A probation report indicated that Chinn has “had numerous mental health problems.”

Chinn claimed that he went to the home of friends for dinner and they drove him home around 10:30 p.m.

PLEASE SEE PATRICK SULLIVAN AND YOU WILL SEE HOW THIS STATE TRULY FEELS AND TREATS IT’S SEX-OFFENDERS !!!!!

Guest

I once was briefly acquainted with Felix Chinn, when I was a teenager.
Even though I never had hard evidence to back it up, I’ve always believed
that he was responsible for Jakeob McKnight’s demise. He was certainly unhealthily obsessed with Jakeob. He was one of the
very few people I knew in my younger wilder days who truly frightened
me. I’m thankful I was too old for his tastes then, or I’m convinced
I’d have been his victim.

Spiral Spiral

I was once briefly acquainted with Felix Chinn, when I was a teenager. Although I never had any hard evidence to back it up, I’ve believed since those days that he was responsible for Jakeob McKnight’s demise. He was certainly unhealthily obsessed with Jakeob. I’m thankful that I was too old then for Chinn’s tastes–I’m convinced that I would have been his victim otherwise–and I still felt like I might have been about to become one on one occasion, which made that the last time I allowed myself to be in his presence.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.